Mariners fire all guns blazing, beat Padres 8-3

Consistency may not be the sexiest skill a baseball player can have, but it’s the one that ensures a long and productive career. From the day he entered the major leagues, Logan Gilbert has thought about what he needs to do to stay there; he developed his splitter almost as a hobby project, something he’d thought about for years when he figured out how he’d continue to be effective after suffering the fastball decline that comes with aging. He’s obsessed with his ability to go deep in games: More than posting flashy strikeout numbers or the tiniest ERA, Gilbert wants to go six innings every time, which he considers “the bare minimum.” He’s been a workhorse since his days as a starter at Stetson, and he’s brought that mentality to the Mariners, who have relied — whether they know it or not — on Logan to pull them out of a losing spiral with his ability to pitch deep and effectively in games. In return, the Mariners have rewarded Gilbert this season by winning just 10 of his 19 starts, and in those losses, by allowing him an average of less than 1.5 runs per game. Compare that to Gilbert’s record in games where he gets four or more runs in support: He’s now 34-0, after the Mariners finally gave him some support tonight.

On the other side, Padres starting pitcher Adam Mazur, making just his seventh major league start, struggled in the first inning, walking JP Crawford and hitting Mitch Garver with a pitch to put two runs on one with no outs. After Luke Raley grounded out, Julio Rodríguez threw the first pitch he saw, a slider over the middle of the plate into left field for a quick 1-0 lead. That was all the Mariners got, as Cal Raleigh was swung out and Dominic Canzone was struck out on two pitches. Mazur relied on secondaries in the first inning, throwing his curveball and slider nearly three times as much as his fastball, but the Mariners couldn’t catch up with those underperforming secondaries despite landing in the middle of the plate with little life.

Fortunately, they seemed to make an adjustment in the second inning, with Jorge Polanco hitting that slider for a base hit, followed by Ty France pouncing on a first-pitch slider for a well-hit double (105 mph EV) that went deep enough into Petco Park to score Polanco from first base. Josh Rojas and JP Crawford came up with power outs, and Garver hit a first-pitch sinker for an easy popout, leaving Ty France on third base.

The Mariners added in the third; with Julio on base, after pushing another ground ball up the middle, Cal Raleigh took a curveball at the bottom of the zone and, apparently using only one hand, gently lifted it just over the right-field fence to put the Mariners up 4-0, past Logan Gilbert’s Mark and virtually securing a victory.

But the Mariners weren’t done scoring against Mazur; in the fifth, Julio finally put an end to one of Mazur’s mediocre sliders, sending this near-center throw 411 feet:

Meanwhile, Logan Gilbert was nearly perfect in his first attempt in the Padres’ order, needing just 30 pitches to get through the first nine batters. He had a bit of bad luck with the batted ball when Donavan Solano sliced ​​a slider well below the zone, rolling it down the left-field line and into potential double-luck territory, except a great play by Josh Rojas kept Solano on first base, setting up a double play by rookie All-Star Jackson Merrill, who went for a split in a 1-2 count.

The Padres were clearly in swing mode and had a hard time resisting Gilbert’s pitches that were around but not in the zone. In that at-bat, Gilbert had Higashioka in an 0-2 count. He widened the zone with a curveball, which Higashioka held, then came back with the same pitch, just a little over the plate but still out of the zone, provoking an ugly swing from Higashioka.

Higashioka wasn’t Gilbert’s only victim on that pitch, either: He had used nearly the same sequence as Manny Machado to throw second for his first strikeout of the day.

And while they won’t get the Pitching Ninja treatment, there were a significant number of soft-contact outs, half-swings where it looked like the hitters were caught in the crossfire, leading to soft-contact ground ball outs. It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth inning that Gilbert reached a three-ball count against any batter, as Higashioka decided he’d had enough of being on the wrong end of Pitching Ninja and drew a two-out walk against Gilbert, his first runner on base since second – though that was quickly erased by Luis Arraez who attacked the first pitch of his at-bat and got under a cutter for another soft-contact out.

Meanwhile, former Mariners player Stephen Kolek took over for Mazar, who pitched just 4.2 innings against the Mariners, cleaning up his fifth inning and pitching a scoreless sixth with three strikeouts. Yuki Matsui worked the seventh and was victimized by a loaded Julio Rodriguez, who hit a splitter to left field for his fourth hit of the day, a double that put him within a triple of the cycle. He then advanced to third on a wild pitch, though he probably could have stayed on second, as Cal decided he wanted another one, this time on the other side of the plate:

Also, this is only the seventh time, and yet Cal Raleigh is the only player to have achieved two such performances. Extend Cal Raleigh.

It’s hilarious that the Mariners have managed to keep their double-digit strikeout streak going, even while piling up, because Rome wasn’t built in a day or anything. But hey, you can get a few strikeouts when you’re throwing the ball all over the field, and that’s what the Mariners did tonight.

The Padres finally managed to score against Gilbert in the bottom third of the game, as he gave up two home runs: a solo shot in the seventh, as Gilbert left a home run up the middle of the plate to Cronenworth, and the big one, a two-out, two-run home run to Higashioka, who caught a slider at the plate and managed to get it over the left-field fence. It’s a shame because Servais lifted Gilbert after that home run, ending his attempt at a complete game, which would have been such a nice follow-up to his first All-Star nomination — but a game where he completely dominated the healthy Padres, striking out seven and walking just one, is a pretty good follow-up nonetheless. Tayler Saucedo easily got the final out of the inning, limiting the damage to just two runs.

The Mariners got one of those runs in the top of the ninth inning, when Cal Raleigh doubled off Wandy Peralta, who left the game with an injury, and Victor Robles quickly followed with a double off Enyel de los Santos. Robles confirmed that he’s made a small change with Seattle’s hitting coaches since joining the Mariners. I’m interested in seeing more of him, which we might, because Dominic Canzone left tonight’s game with a lower-body injury that he apparently suffered in Sunday’s game when he made the diving play in the outfield. Dom was trying to play through it, but apparently the injury got worse after his double tonight. Also, Julio was lifted tonight with some calf tightness, but that seems to be less of a concern for Servais than it is for Canzone, who will have an MRI tomorrow.

We can’t end tonight without mentioning Gregory Santos, who made his Mariners debut after finally coming off the injured list. Santos was dazzling, throwing powerful sliders and sinkers, hitting 101 mph and averaging 100 on the pitch. He also took a dig at Jurickson Profar, who wasn’t happy about Santos throwing him inside, berating him back in the dugout after Profar was knocked out and immediately showing it to Mariners fans everywhere. Fun times. Hopefully they can keep that energy going tomorrow.